Red Robin: Family Ties
by MissScorp
Summary: Timothy Drake has spent six months searching for clues that show that Bruce Wayne is alive. But when his search comes up empty, where is the 17-year-old supposed to turn? And to who? Two-shot take on if Bruce had died in the Final Crisis. Angst and family bonding. T for mild swearing.
1. I'll check on him

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing but for the general theme and concept of this story.

**A/N:** This story follows the premise that my other story, **Ballad of the Robin** takes: what would life be like for the members of the Batfamily if Bruce Wayne/Batman had really died at Darkseid's hands in the Final Crisis? This is an AU take upon that theme that answers that very question.

* * *

"Alright, I'm at the apartment now."

Keys jingling in her hand, Raya Kean stepped out of the elevator into a wide oval-shaped foyer. She stepped over to a set of double oak doors, the only ones on this floor considering she was the owner of the building and this was her penthouse suite. She immediately paused, knowing that an undetectable security scan had begun the second that she stepped off the elevator. It was something she'd installed even before the ink had had a chance to dry on the final paperwork.

Much like Bruce Wayne, she owned multiple properties in multiple cities around the world. Protecting her secret life as Fenix was always her highest priority. It was the first lesson that she'd learned after Bruce had agreed to take her beneath his wing and mentored her in the ways of being a crime fighter. But this apartment high-rise overlooking the San Francisco Bay not only provided _her _with the perfect place in which to conceal and hide the plethora of gadgets and toys necessary for her nocturnal career, it provided one for the rest of the Batfamily whenever they might be in town as well.

"You're sure it's been two days since you talked with Tim last?"

"Raya, Tim hasn't answered any of the texts, phone calls or emails that Bart, Cass and I have sent him in the last forty-nine hours," Conner Kent-the young superhero known around the world as Superboy, said. "Something's up with him, we just can't get him to tell us _what_."

"Hm."

Conner could almost hear the wheels of her mind turning. He smiled and reached over to ruffle the ears of Krypto, the white kryptonian superdog who was his canine best friend and frequent partner. The dog yawned and stretched, but did nothing more than flop his head into Conner's lap. Conner just grinned. Wonderful to be a dog, he thought silently.

"And you guys have absolutely no idea as to what might have happened?"

"None," he said on a heavy breath. "And I called Dick to see if something had happened that required Tim to return to Gotham."

Raya was honestly surprised that Conner had called and asked her rather than Dick-whom he thought of as not only his best friend's big brother, but his own as well-to come and check in on Tim. But she suspected the reason for that was Damian, whom Conner had made every effort to befriend after the boy had joined the Titans. But Conner's every attempt to make friends with Damian had been ruthlessly rejected because Damian felt that the young superhero was comparing him to Tim and finding him as being inferior- something that the al Ghul part of Damian's DNA could not accept being seen as.

"Dick said that all is quiet there in Gotham for the moment."

That was a shock. Whenever the bad guys decided to play quietly among themselves was usually when shit was about to hit the fan. She made a note to call Dick after she'd talked with Tim.

"So, it's safe to say that Tim is here in the City still."

"As far as I know?" Conner sighed. "Yes."

"I'll find out what's wrong with him." Knowing that the initial security scan was complete, Raya unlocked the front door, stepped inside the dark apartment and entered her key code to disarm the secondary alarm. "And Conner, I know I wasn't your first choice on who to call, but..."

"You are the more logical and safer choice at this moment." Conner said for her. "Raya, I knew you weren't likely to show up with a belligerent, surly tempered little smart ass that could only make whatever is bothering Tim, worse."

"I would never bring Damian along without asking Tim if it was alright first," she replied as she scanned the entrance hall. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary here but for the leather jacket hanging from the closet door. "You hung out here with Tim a few days ago?"

"How'd you know?"

She smiled at the surprise in his voice. "You left your jacket here."

"Oh." She could almost imagine that the smile she heard in his voice was edging towards sheepish. "Forgot that that is where I left it."

"You know you can come by and get it whenever," she said cheerfully. "Mi casa es la casa de los titanes."

"You could come to regret saying that."

But it was doubtful and they both knew it. It never bothered Raya to have the Titans around. If anything, the more the merrier was her motif. Something that Conner had found strange until Tim had told him about her childhood. Lonely was something that Conner could definitely understand. Just as he knew that feeling _alone_ was even worse than just being _lonely_. Raya dropped her overnight bag by the entry hall closet.

"Nothing out of the ordinary happened while you were here?"

"No. Whatever happened happened after Bart and I left," came his reply. "Hey, didn't you talk to Tim a few days ago?"

"I haven't talked to Tim in about a week actually," she admitted with a sigh. "Barb and I have been in Hawaii on a much needed girls only getaway."

"Fenix and the Batgirl loose on the Big Island of Hawaii..." the kryptonian superhero teased. "Hawaiian bad guys didn't stand a chance."

Raya snorted a laugh. "Fenix and the Batgirl stayed home so that Raya and Barbara could be normal twenty-five-year-old females for a change."

"You two did _no_ crime fighting while you were in Hawaii?"

"We spent seven glorious, fun-filled days on the beautiful beaches of Honolulu doing absolutely dick."

Conner chuckled and listened while she began to softly hum _Aloha Oe_. The song brought up images in his head of white surf, ocean waters so blue that the sky paled in comparison and the sultry heat of a lush tropical paradise. That the girls had gotten the chance to enjoy that lavish splendor, that they'd been able to allow the spirit of the islands to wash away some of the grief made him happy. He liked the cousins, cared a great deal for them and about them in fact. So much so that he'd do anything within his power to see them both happy and safe.

"So," he said playfully. "You girls accomplished what the male members of the Batfamily have never been able to... gone on a vacation that did not turn into anything that was related to crime fighting."

"Amazing what we women can..." her voice trailed off as she got her first good look at the destruction that had been wrought in the living room. None of them tended to be bound by the need to have a great deal of stuff lying around to gather dust. But the living room still looked like a tornado had blown through it. Chairs had been knocked over, bookcases had been emptied of all contents—the books and DVDs that had once graced the shelves flung all around the room-tables had been upended and there was glass from where a lamp had not survived being tossed against the wall.

"Well, I can see that someone has been very busy," she said dryly. "The living room has been turned into an absolute disaster zone."

"Shit…" Conner felt alarm course through him. And was concerned not only for his best friends safety, but for hers as well. "Raya, get out of the apartment. Krypto and I will be..."

"Conner," Raya interjected in a warm, soothing voice. "This looks like Tim's doing."

"Tim's doing..." He let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "You're sure?"

"I'm positive. Sorry if I alarmed you with my very bad choice of wording."

"You're positive that it was Tim that tore up the front room?"

She smiled as she righted a chair. "He did the same thing to his bedroom after Dick chose Damian as his Robin."

She heard him draw in a deep breath and release it slowly.

"Something big happened for him to tear up the apartment like that then."

"I agree," she said absently as she made her way carefully through the ring of destruction. Of the man responsible for the mess there was no sign. She followed the ring of devastation down the hall and saw it came to a stop at the bedroom door that was to her left. What could have happened that would make you go berserk like this, Timmy? she silently wondered. Conner must have been thinking the exact same thing for a second after she thought it; he vocalized the thought by asking;

"What do you think happened to cause Tim to go apeshit?"

Raya dropped her purse off on the breakfast nook before making her way down the hall.

"I don't know. I'll let you know what I find out after I've talked with him. Hey," she said suddenly. "Can you do me a favor?"

"Ask Alfred to fly out to San Francisco and help you with the clean-up?"

Raya chuckled and pictured the staid and proper butler's reaction to seeing the mess that had been made in the living room.

"No. I will handle the clean-up. What I was going to ask is if you would call Dick for me."

"You want me to call Dick..." he said slowly. "Why?"

"See if you can find out if Tim had a run-in with a certain nine-year-old pain in his ass anywhere within the last forty-nine hours."

"Giving the kid a bit too much credit there aren't you?" Conner asked dryly.

Raya paused with her hand on the doorknob. And sighed softly.

"No, I'm not. Damian's been really aggressive towards Tim ever since he arrived. Dick and I have had to actually get in between the two of them to keep them from killing each other quite frequently lately."

"Not like them two coming to blows is anything new," Conner said darkly. "Tim's never forgotten how the kid tried to kill him upon their first meeting."

"I know. Keeping them apart has become a daily exercise for Dick and I."

"Damian hasn't made it a secret that he hates Tim, Raya. And he's made it clear that he would like Tim kicked out of the family."

"Damian doesn't hate Tim persay," she corrected. "He's _jealous_ of him. And he tends to be extremely possessive of the people he allows close to him." Which just happened to be the same group of people that Tim himself cared about she knew. How to resolve the conflict between the two boys was something that had been discussed at great lengths between Dick, Alfred and her. "As for seeing Tim kicked out of the family?" She sighed. "Ya got me on that one. It drives Damian crazy whenever Tim reminds him that his name is officially Timothy Drake-Wayne."

"Yeah well, Damian has only gotten worse now that he's accepted _you_ into his limited little world." Conner heard the accusatory tone in his voice and instantly regretted it. It wasn't Raya's fault that the kid had gotten closer to her after his father's death. "Damn, I'm sorry for that, Raya."

"It's alright Conner," she said kindly. "Don't even worry about..."

"No," he cut in. Gently, but firmly. "No, it's not alright."

"Conner..." she started but he simply cut her off by saying;

"Raya, it's not fair to blame _you _for the way that Damian feels- towards you or towards Tim even. It's not like it's something that you have any control over."

"Tim's your best friend," she said. "What hurts or upsets him, hurts and upsets you. That's how it goes with best friends."

_That's how it is when someone hurts or upsets your best friend_, was Conner's thought. But he said instead; "I'll call Dick. See if the kid mighta done or said something that set Tim off."

"Thanks, Conner. I'll call you in a bit to check in."

She disconnected the call by tapping the button on her ear piece. She then opened the bedroom door. There was no light. He'd drawn the heavy drapes in order to block out the sun.

_What the hell happened, Tim_? was her thought as she crept across the floor.


	2. Family Ties

Raya waited for her eyes to adjust before making her way over to the enormous bed situated in the middle of the room. The path of destruction it seemed had not been limited to the living room and hallway, because she felt papers and other strewn items bump against her toes and stick to the bottom of her bare feet. She could just barely make out the figure that was sprawled face down in the middle of the soft ticking and smooth cloth. Even knowing that that was the manner in which Tim normally slept, she still felt a small trickle of panic well up within her.

"Tim?" she said softly.

She leaned over to set her hand on his arm, let out a startled yelp when he suddenly twisted and grabbed her. It was so unexpected a move that Raya was already tumbling onto the bed by the time she realized what was happening. The minute that she hit the soft ticking, she rolled, but Tim quickly pinned her. She slapped at him, but he simply grabbed her hands and pinioned them between his larger ones. Were it not for her concern she might have been amused at being caught in such an interesting situation. But worry was slowly beginning to fade into irritation. She strained against Tim's hold, but found that she just could not dislodge him. No matter that they were equal in terms of fighting capabilities; he was still stronger than her physically. And in the back of her mind she realized that somewhere in the last few months, her little Robin had also packed on some additional muscle and weight. But that didn't mean she was about to give up, or _in_, quietly.

"Timothy Jackson Drake," she hissed at him. "I am so _not _amused with you at this moment!"

Tim started at the sound of her voice. _No_, he thought, eyes blinking wide. _Can't be_. There was just no logically possible way that it could be Raya that he had pinned beneath him. _She's in Hawaii still with Barbara_. He angled his head, trying to see her face in the faint light. But all he saw was a pair of hypnotic eyes glaring up at him. _Cats green eyes_ he realized, his stomach lurching.

"Raya?" he asked slowly, hesitantly.

"Who the hell else do you think that it would be you birdbrain?"

"What are you doing in San Francisco? I thought that you and Barb were planning on staying in Hawaii until next week?"

"Barb and I were going to remain in Hawaii for a few more days," she gritted. "But we cut our vacation short when Conner called me last night and said that none of the Titans had seen hide or hair of you for the last two goddamn days."

Guilt swirled with the grief and rage that was bubbling and boiling inside him. Getting Barbara and Raya out of Gotham for a few days had been a decision made by not only the male members of the Wayne family, but James Gordon as well. The _Final Crisis_ had been a long expenditure that culminated in the losses of many friends and family—none more devastating to him than the loss of Batman. But they hadn't even gotten a chance to properly mourn the fallen patriarch once the dust had settled. Gotham was left in a state of chaos in the wake of Batman's death. And dealing with that, as well as Jason's bloody rampage had taken a toll upon all of them, physically as well as mentally.

Getting the girls to agree to go away for a while had not been easy. Both had launched arguments about why they should not take a vacation. Least of all with the chaos and confusion that they were still surrounded by. It had not been until all the male members in their clan, and that had included both Superman and Superboy, had ganged up on the girls that they finally admitted that getting away from Gotham for a while would be nice. Knowing that _he_ was the cause for cutting that much needed vacation short made him feel like a complete and utter ass.

"There was no need to cut your vacation short on my count," he muttered in a dark and brooding tone.

Her little Robin was becoming more and more like his fallen mentor she saw. With a sigh she said; "Then why did you go incommunicado the last few days?"

"I just didn't feel like talking to anyone was all."

"Guess it might have been a good idea to let your best friends know that you didn't feel like talking to them."

Tim's teeth gnashed at the reprimand in her tone.

"Look, I had some personal shit going on and didn't feel like talking to anybody about it, okay?"

But he'd forgotten who he was dealing with here. Raya was not like Dick, or even Stephanie. She wasn't going to simply nod her head and say "sure thing, Tim. I completely understand." That just was not her style or her motif.

"It's perfectly acceptable that you were dealing with something personal," she said. "But Tim, this family has been ripped apart at the seams. Just going off grid is not acceptable, no matter what your reasons were. You should have told your friends that you needed a few days to yourself and not to worry if they didn't hear from you."

Tim felt the frayed edges of his temper beginning to unravel. Outwardly, he appeared cool and calm, his voice just slightly detached. But internally he was like a volcano waiting to erupt, the pressure mounting until he feared he would simply explode.

"Gee, I figured my _friends_ would catch on that why I wasn't answering any of their messages was because I wanted to be left the hell _alone_."

Her brows lifted. Well, wasn't someone touchy this morning?

"Tim," she spoke as gently as she could. "Didn't you think that after two days of not talking to Conner that he _might_ decide to call someone and ask them to come and check up on you?"

_But why did it have to be you_? he wondered. If it had been Dick who'd come to check on him he'd at least have had the satisfaction of picking a fight with him. A quick, nasty brawl would have worked out some of the frustration currently pumping through him. But he couldn't pick that type of fight with Raya. He'd never dare too. Even in all the spar sessions they had had with each other he'd been careful to never strike her, to never hurt her. It would kill him to ever do either.

"He shoulda known not to worry."

She rolled her eyes. Tim thought she muttered something beneath her breath that sounded like a comparison between _Robins's_ and _jack asses,_ but he couldn't be sure. Finally she said; "He cares about you, you feather brained idiot. You're not only his best friend, but the closest thing that he has to a _brother_."

It was the mention of his being the closest thing that Conner had to a brother that was Tim's undoing. Everything—all the grief and anger and pain that he had been containing for the last six months finally erupted from him in one soul shattering phreatic eruption. He scrambled away from Raya, putting what distance that he could between them to prevent her from being swept up into the explosion. Grief turned to fury, a raging tidal wave of anger that had Tim seeing red. On a howl of grief, Tim reared back and slammed his fist against the wall. Flesh and bone cracked, split, but the physical pain only barely registered. He slid down the wall, cradling his throbbing head between trembling fingertips. Suddenly he was sobbing, and the wrenching grief in it tore at her heart more than the physical display of violence.

"Tim! What is it? What's wrong?"

"I couldn't find anything! I couldn't find anything to prove that Bruce was alive!"

"Oh, baby." She fumbled for the light switch that was on the wall, but couldn't find it. She finally sank to the floor next to him, and cradled him in her arms. "Shhhh, it's okay. It's okay, Tim. I've got you."

His arms banded around her like steel. "I just wanted to prove everyone wrong," he whispered brokenly. "I just wanted to be able to show them that my grief hadn't driven me crazy. That Bruce had survived Darkseid's attack…" he paused; sighed. "That he was _alive_."

"I know that you did. And God knows Tim; we were all hoping that you'd turn out to be right. That you'd find out that Bruce had somehow, in some way, managed to survive Darkseid's attack." Her sigh ruffled the hair at his temples. "But we also knew that there was the possibility that your search would turn up nothing. And now we have to deal with the fallout of that and move on."

She was right, he thought as he clung to her. He had known that it was probable that his search would turn up nothing. But he'd had to _try_. He'd needed to make sure that this time, _this_ time, Batman had really been defeated. But moving on? He just wasn't sure that he could do that. Moving on required letting Bruce go. And he just wasn't ready to say goodbye to his mentor, and parent.

"I miss him, Raya." The grief of it trembled in his voice, was in the sound of his tears. "I miss him so goddamn much that it hurts. Some days it's all I can do just to keep a lid on it all. And I admit that there are days where I don't know if I can go on. Sometimes, I don't know if I _want_ to go on."

"That's the grief talking."

"When does it _stop_ talking?"

There was desperation, and the kind of insanity that only sorrow can cause inside his question. But he was begging her for an answer that she just could not give him. The desire to lift his pain, to take it away for him, was a helpless want racing around inside of her. But she couldn't take his pain from him, and she knew it. She contented herself with rubbing his back in slow, soothing circles.

"I wish that I could tell you that grief is a nice and orderly process. But the truth is that it's not a nice and orderly process. It's got more inversions than the Smiler, taller vertical loops than the Full Throttle, a steeper drop than the Takabisha, and can speed you around corners and bends faster than the Kingda Ka."

She managed to surprise a laugh out of him, at least.

"Only you'd think to equate grief to something like roller coasters," he teased softly. "You geek."

"It made you laugh though."

"Yea, it did."

He sighed; rest his head against her chest, and listened to the steady sound of her heartbeat. Comfort and love, he realized. It was exactly what he'd needed—what he'd needed for the last six months and been denying himself. Suddenly why Conner had called Raya and not Dick made sense. It boiled down to familial ties, and to the roles that belonged to specific members. And Dick, while being a generously supportive and awesome big brother that always listened when he needed an ear, was just not going to sit on the floor with his arms wrapped around him. It woulda been way to weird and much too uncomfortable for either of them. But with Raya that kind of warmth and show of affection was permissible. She was the rock that he could lean on, the emotional support that he could count on. Because she was his big sister and that's what big sisters did for their younger siblings. _And you knew that, didn't you Conner_? he thought.

"Raya?"

"Yes, Tim?"

"Are we going to be okay?" he raised his head to look at her. "I mean, seriously okay?"

"Yes, Tim," she framed his face with her hands, kissed his forehead. Yet another of those things that only a big sister could do. "We're really going to be okay. In time."

"You promise?"

"I promise."


End file.
